MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
This is my end-of-year report on our MIM Grievance Campaign. We did one
on the “unlocks” here, and we’re currently working on the issue of
showers. Due to the California drought they claim that we are still in a
drought and therefore can only shower on Tuesday and Thursday. Even then
there is no hot water so we are showering in ICE cold water. This is in
spite of the fact that we are in a medical facility and most of us are
older prisoners.
The temp has dropped to 34 degrees in the morning and we have been in
these conditions now for over a month. Enclosed please find the
grievances.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Comrades at Richard J. Donovan Correctional
Facility have been pursuing these issue through 602 appeals forms and
subsequent appeals. After receiving a response of “partially granted”
there was no actual change in conditions and they began utilizing the
grievance petition for California. They have done a good job documenting
the process, citing case law of Armstrong vs. Brown and the 8th
and 14th Amendment.
Comrades in California and other states can write in to get a copy of a
grievance petition to use as an organizing tool to bring people together
around conditions that are not being addressed at your prison.
Movie Review: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 1989
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation depicts the struggles (if
they can be called that) of Clark Griswold. It is Clark’s quest to have
the perfect Christmas for eir family: spouse Ellen and children Audrey
and Rusty. Most of the first act of the film is dedicated to comedically
exaggerated petty-bourgeois scenarios in this vein: getting the right
tree, putting up the Christmas lights, shopping for gifts, and trying to
keep the peace among family members (much extended family arrives in the
form of both sets of grandparents, Ellen’s cigar-smoking uncle Lewis and
senile aunt Bethany, and Clark’s redneck cousin Eddie, accompanied by
eir spouse, children and dog). Christmas books and movies have long been
vessels for anti-capitalist messages, even if they are tainted by
idealism and economism: from Ebenezer Scrooge being frightened into
giving concessions to the proletariat in A Christmas Carol(1), to
the anti-imperialist solidarity of Whoville in How the Grinch Stole
Christmas(2), to the anti-militarism parable of A Christmas
Story(3). And a superficial “reading” of Christmas Vacation
suggests that it may not only follow the same paradigm but even exceed
these works and act as an inspiration for communist revolution (spoiler
alert: the climax of the movie involves the forceful kidnapping of a
member of the bourgeoisie). However, a deeper analysis reveals that,
despite occasional flashes of progressiveness and a candid depiction of
the labor aristocracy, the film does not provide useful guidance for
revolution.
Throughout the movie, some potshots are taken at the bourgeoisie, but
nothing too substantial. Clark’s next-door yuppie neighbors are depicted
as pretentious snobs, while eir boss is gruff and impersonal. But these
attacks on the bourgeoisie are based on persynal mannerisms, not
economic grounds. Clark is clearly a privileged member of the labor
aristocracy. Ellen doesn’t seem to work, and Clark makes enough to
afford a couple of cars and a nice house, which ey bedecks with an
over-the-top lighting display. Clark does not even seem to work hard to
enjoy these things. In the whole movie, ey is shown at work in only
three brief scenes. And in none of those scenes is ey actually engaged
in labor. In the first, ey is chatting at the watercooler. In the
second, ey drops off a gift and unsuccessfully attempts to ingratiate
emself with eir boss. In the third, ey is sitting in eir office, looking
over some plans for a persynal swimming pool. So Clark does not appear
to work that hard, but ey does mention several innovations ey has made
for eir company, which seems to be a manufacturer of chemical food
additives although no manufacturing is ever shown onscreen.
Could Clark’s mental labor as a chemist still be exploited by the
bourgeoisie proper? The answer appears to be no: Clark is planning to
pay for eir swimming pool with eir end-of-year bonus. Said bonus
represents compensation for the value ey has produced in excess of eir
salary and thus precludes em from being truly proletarian. Indeed, eir
entire compensation is likely funded by the manufacture of chemicals ey
has designed, presumably by Third World workers. Thus, Clark occupies
the classic position of a labor aristocrat: someone who may be slightly
exploited by the bourgeoisie, but who ultimately receives compensation
in excess of the value of eir labor, as a beneficiary of imperialist
superexploitation of the Third World proletariat.
As the film progresses, the minor and mainly apolitical subplots fade to
the periphery (after some technical difficulties, Clark’s light show
wows the family and is never mentioned again), and a political thread
assumes prominence. As it turns out, Clark is really counting on eir
Christmas bonus. In order to expedite the construction of eir pool,
Clark has put down a deposit and written a check that eir bank account
can’t cover. Clark is confident that eir performance will earn em a
sizable bonus, but that confidence begins to wane as the days go by
without word from the company. Finally, a messenger arrives on Christmas
Eve with an envelope. Before opening it, Clark, apparently on the knife
edge between luxury and financial ruin, expresses both eir anxiety
regarding eir solvency and eir hope that the check will be large enough
to not only cover the cost of the pool but also airfare to fly over all
the extended family present (ten people!) to enjoy it when it is built.
To much fanfare, Clark opens the envelope and finds that, to eir dismay,
it only contains a subscription to the Jelly-of-the-Month club, a gift
of nugatory value. Enraged, Clark launches into a tirade denouncing eir
boss’s perfidy and angrily expresses eir desire to see eir boss tied up.
Taking Clark’s words literally, Eddie slips out, locates Clark’s boss
(conveniently, Clark mentioned the neighborhood ey lives in during eir
lengthy monologue), and kidnaps em. Bound, gagged, and festooned with a
large ribbon, ey is Eddie’s last-minute Christmas gift to Clark.
There are several issues with this scenario.
First, the stakes are very low. The only thing really at risk is Clark’s
bonus. Perhaps ey will have to live without the pool for another year.
Perhaps ey will be charged by the bank for a bounced check. Perhaps ey
will even have to forfeit the deposit ey made. But if Clark is low on
cash, that is a problem of eir own making. We are talking about a persyn
who probably spent over three grand just on the electricity for eir
250,000-bulb Christmas light display.(4) If Clark misses out on eir
bonus, what is the big deal? Ey might have to pawn eir lights and forgo
the spectacular light show next year. Eir family might even have to take
fewer of their legendary vacations. But it seems unlikely that they are
in danger of going hungry or having to sell the house or even the car.
Perhaps the aspect of Clark’s misfortune which ey most keenly feels –
and which is most relevant to Amerikan audiences – is what it
represents. Denied an explicit share in eir surplus value (ignoring, of
course, that ey still receives a salary of international superprofits),
Clark is confronted by the prospect of eir potential proletarianization.
Scarier than any Ghost of Christmas, the spectre of economic forces
strikes fear into eir heart. Rather than act constructively, however,
Clark, true to eir petty-bourgeois nature, reacts by pointlessly venting
eir rage at eir family. Ey also attempts to ignore the problem by
frantically following family Christmas rituals (providing time in the
narrative for Eddie to complete eir mission with eir absence unnoticed).
The proletariat of the 19th Century may have had to turn to the hard
drug of religion – “the opiate of the masses” (5) – to cope with its
actual oppression, but in Clark’s case, nothing so strong is required,
just what might be called the eggnog of the masses: a reading of “The
Night Before Christmas” and also a Tylenol, washed down by a few cups of
literal eggnog.
So, the stakes are low, but this movie is a comedy. Perhaps the events
depicted can be seen as a microcosm of the proletarian struggle. Would a
mere amplification of things produce a progressive view of international
economic exploitation? Sadly, no. Clark is a member of the labor
aristocracy, with an imperialist, petty-bourgeois, even bourgeois
mindset. Even eir most innocuous actions are tainted with oppression.
Eir actions throughout the film appear to be a re-enactment of
Amerikkkan history and atrocities, down to a roughly chronological
progression from European colonization to Amerikkkan imperialism in the
Pacific. The movie opens with Clark driving eir family to the woods to
chop down a Christmas tree instead of buying one, a handy metaphor for
Amerikkkan theft of the land from Indigenous peoples and destruction of
the environment, as well as a reminder that it was the timber of North
America that originally drew the English colonizers. Next, Clark moves
on to gender oppression. In “The Communist Manifesto”, Marx and Engels
wrote that the “bourgeois, not content with having the wives and
daughters of their proletarians at their disposal… take the greatest
pleasure in seducing each other’s wives.”(6) In multiple ways, Clark
displays these bourgeois ambitions, although ey may be considered only
petty-bourgeois due to eir lack of success. First, while shopping for
Christmas gifts, ey flirts and leers at the female salesclerk. Later, ey
has a daydream about eir pool in which the the vision of eir family
playing is replaced by a fantasy of seduction by a womyn who the
soundtrack implies to be an Indigenous Hawaii’an, thus tying together
the gender and national strands of oppression.
Finally, there is Eddie. Despite eir simple appearance, Eddie is the
fulcrum of one of the biggest paradoxes in the film: is ey a force for
revolution or reaction? An uninvited guest, ey seems to be nothing but a
source of problems, but ey ultimately saves the day with eir actions
against the bourgeoisie. Is ey proletarian? Hardly. It is revealed that
ey has been out of work for seven years. Aha! Perhaps ey is part of the
lumpenproletariat. Even if that were true, ey would be part of the First
World lumpen and receive a significant benefit from eir position as a
resident of the imperialist u.$. Regardless, the facts reveal that Eddie
is no lumpenproletariat hero. First, the reason for eir protracted
unemployment is that ey is holding out for a management position – a
classic petty-bourgeois aspiration. Furthermore, ey mentions that,
despite having had to trade the home for an RV, ey still retains
ownership in a plot of land, a farm and some livestock. Ey is still
petty boourgeois, then; one who, despite reduced circumstances, holds on
to a vestige of the family estate. In addition, another troubling aspect
of Eddie’s past is offhandedly revealed. Ey mentions that ey has a plate
in eir head, provided by the VA. Therefore, ey is not just a passive
recipient but an active participant in imperialism: one who enjoys the
privilege of free healthcare in exchange for eir role in aiding Amerikan
war crimes. Despite this, ey does fleetingly provide the film with its
only sliver of appreciation for the destruction wrought by capitalism
and u.$. imperialism. While shopping, Eddie asks Clark “Your company
kill off all them people in India not long ago?”, referring to the
Bhopal chemical disaster that killed an estimated 16,000 people and
injured as many as half a million more (7,8). “No, we missed out on that
one,” Clark dryly responds, and the conversation moves on, presumably
because Eddie doesn’t care. Meanwhile, Eddie causes a chemical disaster
of eir own; after emptying the septic tank of eir RV into the sewer,
subsequent scenes feature interstitial shots of a menacing green smoke
rising from the storm drain.
But let’s get back to the action. When we left the Griswolds, Eddie had
just marched Clark’s boss into the living room. Ungagged, eir first
instinct is to fire Clark and call the cops. But after all of 30
seconds, ey has a change of heart. Apparently, all that was needed was a
brief speech by Clark with an addendum by Rusty that withholding bonuses
“sucks” to convince Clark’s boss to drop all charges, reinstate the
bonuses, and add another 20% to Clark’s bonus. Clark is so overwhelmed
that ey faints.
OK, seriously? If a 20% raise was all that was needed to address the
iniquities of capitalism, MIM(Prisons) would disband and recommend you
vote for Sanders instead. Actually, even that would be too radical.
Fight for 15? More like fight for $8.70. Also, some aspects of Clark’s
boss’s repentance ring false: ey calls Clark “Carl” and refers to em as
the “little people”. Has Clark received a permanent gain or is eir
victory a tenuous and insecure one? We bring this up not to suggest that
Amerikan labor aristocrats are truly oppressed, just to point out the
vanity and futility of imperialism: despite afflicting so much suffering
across the Third World, it has failed to completely resolve the
contradiction between workers and bourgeoisie in Amerika.
Basking in their newfound affluence, however petty it may be, the
Griswolds are rudely interrupted by the arrival of the pigs. Usually not
motivated to do much work, the kidnapping of a member of the bourgeoisie
has kicked the pig machine into high gear, and SWAT teams storm the
Griswold home from every conceivable entrance, including several pigs
rappelling through the windows. (Some pigs even kick down the door of
the neighboring house; although this scene was probably meant to provide
some comic relief and comeuppance to the yuppies, it also wouldn’t be
the first or the last time that property and lives were endangered by
pigs getting the address wrong). The deference of the pigs to the
bourgeoisie is further underscored by the arrival of the wife of Clark’s
boss in a car driven by a persyn whose heavily decorated dress uniform
marks em as the chief of police. This persyn would also be identified by
most viewers, on the basis of eir skin color, as “black”. In fact, ey is
the only non-white character with a speaking role in the entire movie.
This detail is significant on several levels. First, the fact that the
Griswolds live in Chicago, a city with substantial New Afrikan and
Chican@ populations, but appear to interact exclusively with white
Amerikkkans represents an likely-inadvertent, but nonetheless
true-to-life, depiction of the highly segregated nature of housing and
employment in Chicago. Second, we must wonder: what was the motivation
of the moviemakers in casting a New Afrikan in this role? It could be
mere tokenism, giving the sole New Afrikan actor a role that is
effectively a chauffeur. Or perhaps they were being ironic, casting a
New Afrikan as the head of the pigs, the institution that has perhaps
committed the most violence against New Afrikans in recent decades. One
shudders to think that perhaps they thought they were being progressive
by casting a New Afrikan in a strategically Euro-Amerikan role and
creating the illusion of an egalitarian, racially-integrated police
force. The true contradiction in Amerikkka is that of nation, not race.
Hence, a persyn who might be labeled as non-white can still, in some
cases, manage to join the Amerikkkan nation and rise to the role of head
pig (or even, as in the case of Barack Obama, war-criminal-in-chief);
the situation in this film, then, seems prescient of the modern-day
prominence of sheriff Clarke of Milwaukee, another midwestern town.
Perhaps a Christmas comedy is the wrong place to look for an inspiring
depiction of New Afrikan revolutionaries, but it is still unfortunate
that all we have been given is a bootlicker to the bourgeoisie.
Many people have been killed by trigger-happy pigs, and a kidnapping on
Christmas Eve seems like the kind of high-stakes situation that would
bring in the pigs with guns blazing, but the predicament faced by the
Griswolds is resolved with miraculous ease. After Clark’s boss explains
the situation, everybody relaxes, although Clark’s boss is still
admonished all-around for his idea of cutting Christmas bonuses (the
head pig even says that ey’d like to beat em with a rubber hose – a
seemingly progressive action that, due to its focus on individual
retribution, is actually little more than adventurism; and even that
idea comes across as an outburst that is never fulfilled). What about
Eddie’s toxic waste spill? An errant match tossed by Uncle Lewis ignites
it, but the resulting explosion only serves to launch a plastic Santa
and reindeer into the air, creating the perfect Christmas tableau in the
sky and prompting a confused Aunt Bethany to spontaneously break into a
rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner”. As the Griswolds and the pigs
dance to Christmas songs in the house, Clark stands on the lawn and
basks in eir achievement. “I did it,” ey says. The perfect family
Christmas.
But for us communists, things are far from perfect. Any potentially
lumpen characters in the movie, who may have been teetering between
revolution and reaction, have, by the film’s end, fallen firmly on the
side of reaction. Everyone else – the labor aristocrats, the
bourgeoisie, pigs – was already there. This movie is best enjoyed not as
a blueprint for revolution but as a satire of the Amerikan way of life.
It offers hints of Amerikan brutality both domestically and abroad, as
well as a depiction of the manner by which government institutions
become tools of the bourgeoisie. But most of all, it exposes the
reactionary nature of the labor aristocracy: the decadence of its
“workers”, the hypocrisy of its “morals” and the futility of any
“revolutionary” action among the beneficiaries of imperialism.
The brief flicker of revolutionary action that does occur is quickly
extinguished due to its limited scope and unsystematic nature. As Lenin
once said, “When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch
of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is
this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it” (9). How
ironic then, that on the (probably mythical) day of Jesus’ birth, the
embryo of revolution was delivered as a stillbirth. Let us look forward,
then, to December 26: the (real) day of Mao’s birth. Beyond eir persynal
achievements, ey stands as a symbol of real revolution. A genuine
proletarian revolution, not a phony one led by Amerikkkan “workers”,
promises real solutions to the real problems facing the world: an end to
the insatiable exploitation by capitalists, an end to the callous
destruction of the environment, an end to the violence perpetrated every
day by pigs. When that day comes, the workers of the world will unite
and we can sing the “Internationale” together.
Sadly, we as prisoners, in many instances take the judgment of our
enemy, the injustice system, as truth even when knowing
first-hand their ability to get a conviction has little to do with facts
or justice. This knowledge should be enough that we not begin to
persecute or torment any member of the lumpen class based on convictions
and charges that derive in these kangaroo courts. The contradiction is
that actual violations of this nature by any member of the lumpen class
is a violation against us all. I have served justice on a street level
against such violators. Yet I am in prison due to a sex crime conviction
that was racially motivated. Even when the alleged victim was impeached
for lying and video was shown proving my innocence a jury of 12 whites
found me guilty of the crime. I have continued to defend my innocence,
lead many groups in prison and stayed politically engaged. Yet I have to
deal with the stigma that is created by this label. I continue to use my
voice to awaken members of the lumpen class about the poisonous beast of
capitalism and educate them about the benefits of socialism.
In the book Soul on Ice, Eldridge Cleaver has a chapter called
“The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs,” which I would advise all
revolutionaries to read. Also to all my New Afrikan comrades our
politics are clear on this issue as it was dealt with in the Ten Point
Program produced by our revolutionary forefathers, The Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense. Point #8 of the program states, “WE want freedom
for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and
jails.”
Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on
the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and beyond, commented in the
August 2016 issue of Ebony Magazine on p. 109:
“To many people, including Blacks and radical activists at the time, the
call for releasing all prisoners was the most controversial tenet of the
Black Panther Party’s original Ten-Point Program. After all, how could
we justify releasing criminals into society?
“For the Panthers, however, it was impossible to separate ‘criminals’
from the circumstances that criminalized them. Racist police forces,
unjust laws, unfair trials and biased juries all made it impossible to
determine whether someone was truly guilty or simply the victim of a
rigged system. Even those who were guilty, they argued, had their hands
forced because of the oppressive conditions of capitalism and White
supremacy. Essentially, the question was, How can you blame someone for
becoming a thief when he or she doesn’t have a fair shot at an honest
job with honest pay?”
But the Panther Program did not end with releasing New Afrikan
prisoners. Point #9 continues to explain:
“We believe that the courts should follow the United States Constitution
so that Black people will receive fair trials. The Fourteenth Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution gives a man a right to be tried by his peer
group. A peer is a person from a similar economic, social, religious,
geographical, environmental, historical and racial background. To do
this the court will be forced to select a jury from the Black community
from which the Black defendant came. We have been, and are being, tried
by all-White juries that have no understanding of the ‘average reasoning
man’ of the Black community.”
Here Huey P. Newton was referring to the tenets of the United $tates
Constitution to justify a move towards building independent institutions
of the oppressed. Newton was always conscious to not get ahead of the
masses, but to lead them towards viable solutions. And the Black Panther
Party leadership knew that getting justice for New Afrikans in the
United $tates was not viable; that only the New Afrikan nation could
apply a just morality in judging the actions of its people in the
context of being an internal semi-colony of the United $tates white
power structure.
So my conclusion to the sex offender debate for issue 61 of Under
Lock & Key is that at no point should we take our enemies word
or level of injustice over members of the lumpen class, when those
lumpen maintain their innocence. Yet we should stand against these
violations if they are knowable facts. We should get to know each member
of the oppressed lumpen on a personal and individual basis, while
understanding the history of the white supremacist criminal injustice
system of labeling political prisoners with these kinds of charges in
their effort to get them assassinated by other members of the oppressed.
Just think of how we lost big Yogi a year or so ago.
Many prisoners have utilized the petition demanding their grievances be
heard. The Commissioner simply forwarded the grievances to the person in
charge of the grievance system, who wrote a letter to each prisoner that
filed a petition. The letter informed the prisoners that they should
file a grievance about the issue if they had a problem with the
grievance system. Absurd, but true.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We responded to this comrade asking what
they think should be done next to resolve this problem. Clearly, writing
grievances isn’t working. Writing to the Commissioner gets no results.
Lawsuits can give some relief, but often only temporarily. And of course
lawsuit victories come with the problem of enforcement.
Ultimately we believe we need to completely change our society in order
to fix this problem. We try to contribute to lawsuits, but even more
importantly we contribute to education and institution-building, so when
our lawsuits fail we can still make progress in our struggle to a more
just humynity.
U.$. imperialist leaders and their labor aristocracy supporters like to
criticize other countries for their tight control of the media and other
avenues of speech. For instance, many have heard the myths about
communist China forcing everyone to think and speak alike. In reality,
these stories are a form of censorship of the truth in the United
$tates. In China under Mao the government encouraged people to put up
posters debating every aspect of political life, to criticize their
leaders, and to engage in debate at work and at home. This was an
important part of the Cultural Revolution in China. There are a number
of books available in this country that give a truthful account, but far
more money is put into anti-communist propaganda books. Here in the
United $tates free speech is reserved for those with money and power.
In prisons in particular we see so much censorship, especially targeting
those who are politically conscious and fighting for their rights.
Fighting for our First Amendment right to free speech is a battle that
MIM(Prisons) and many prisoners waste a lot of time and money on. For us
this is perhaps the most fundamental of requirements for our organizing
work. There are prisoners, and some entire prisons (and sometimes entire
states) that are denied all mail from MIM(Prisons). This means we can’t
send in educational material, or study courses, or even supply a guide
to fighting censorship. Many prisons regularly censor ULK
claiming that the news and information printed within is a “threat to
security.” For them, printing the truth about what goes on behind bars
is dangerous. But if we had the resources to take these cases to court
we believe we could win in many cases.
Denying prisoners mail is condemning some people to no contact with the
outside world. To highlight this, and the ridiculous and illegal reasons
that prisons use to justify this censorship, we will periodically print
a summary of some recent censorship incidents in ULK.
We hope that lawyers, paralegals, and those with some legal knowledge
will be inspired to get involved and help us with these censorship
battles, both behind bars and on the streets. For the full list of
censorship incidents, along with copies of appeals and letters from the
prison, check out our censorship reporting
webpage.
Virginia DOC
The Chair of the publications review committee for the VA DOC, Melissa
Welch, sent MIM(Prisons) a letter denying ULK 56, and then the
next month the same letter denying ULK 57. Both letters cite the
same reasons:
“D. Material, documents, or photographs that emphasize depictions or
promotions of violence, disorder, insurrection, terrorist, or criminal
activity in violation of state or federal laws or the violation of the
Offender Disciplinary Procedure.
“F. Material that depicts, describes, or promotes gang bylaws,
initiations, organizational structure, codes, or other gang-related
activity or association.”
Pennsylvania DOC
Last issue of ULK we reported on the censorship of
ULK57 in Pennsylvania. After sending a protest letter to appeal
the decision we had a rare victory! From the Policy Office, PA
Department of Corrections:
“This is to notify you that the publication in issue does not violate
Department Policy. As such, the decision of the correctional institution
is reversed and the inmates in the PA Department of Corrections will be
permitted to receive the publication. The correctional institutions will
be notified by the Policy Office of the decision.”
If anyone in PA hasn’t received ULK 57 yet, let us know and we
will send another copy to you.
Pennsylvania SCI-Camp Hill
From a prisoner we were forwarded a notice of incoming publication
denial for ULK 57: “create a danger within the context of the
correctional facility” p.21, 24
The description quotes sentences that can’t be found within ULK
including: “PREA system strip searches for harassment in PA”, “Black
prisoners deserve to retaliate against predominantly white ran system”,
and “This is a excellent reminder of PA importance of fighting.” They
are making up text as reasons for censorship in Pennsylvania.
Texas - Bill Clemens Unit
A prisoner forwarded us a denial for ULK 57 “Page 11 contains
information that could cause a prison disruption.”
In March 2017, our study pack Defend the Legacy of the Black Panther
Party was censored for
“Reason C. Page 9 contains information that could cause a strike or
prison disruption.”
This adds to the growing list of our most important literature that is
banned in the state forever, including Settlers: Mythology of the
White Proletariat and Chican@ Power and the Struggle for
Aztlan. We need someone with legal expertise to challenge Texas’s
policies that allow for publications to be banned forever in the state.
Florida - Santa Rosa Correctional Institution
A prisoner forwarded us a notice of impoundment of ULK 57. The
reason cited: “Pages 1, 11, 14, 15, & 17 advocates insurgency and
disruption of institutional operations.”
We appealed this denial and got a response from Dean Peterson, Library
Services Administrator for the Florida DOC, reiterating the reasons for
impoundment and upholding the denial: “In their regularly scheduled
meeting of August 30, 2017 the Literature Review Committee of the
Florida Department of Corrections upheld the institution’s impoundment
and rejected the publication for the grounds stated. This means that
issue will not be allowed into our correctional institutions.”
Florida DOC
Following up on a case printed in ULK 57 regarding Florida’s
denial of the MIM(Prisons) censorship pack, for no specific reasons. We
received a response to our appeal of this case from the same Dean
Peterson, Library Services Administrator, named above.
“From the number of the FDC form you reference and your description
of what happened it is apparent the institutional mailroom did not
handle the Censorship Guide as a publication, but instead handled it in
accordance with the Florida Administrative Code rule for routine mail.
As such, the item was not impounded, was not posted to the list of
impounded publications for any other institution to see, was not
referred to the Literature Review Committee for review, and thus does
not appear on the list of rejected publications. That means that if the
exact same Guide came to any other inmate mailroom staff would look at
it afresh. In theory, it could even be allowed into the institution.
…
“The Florida Administrative Code makes no provision for further review.”
Florida - Florida State Prison
ULK 58 was rejected for what appears to just be a list of titles
of articles, some not even complete:
PGS 6 Liberation schools to organize through the wall (talk about the
hunger strikes) PGS 8 DPRK; White Supremacy’s Global Agenda PGS
11 Case law to help those facing PGS 19 White and gaining
consciousness
Florida - Jefferson Correctional Institution
Meditations on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth: New Afrikan
Revolutionary Writings by James Yaki Sayles was denied to a prisoner
at Jefferson Correctional Institution because “inmate has received a
second copy of the same edition of this publication violating chapter
33-501.401 (16)(b) and procedure 501.401(7)(d).”
Washington state - Coyote Ridge CC
The invitation to and first assignment for our correspondence
introductory study group was rejected by Mailroom Employee April Long
for the following reasons:
“Advocates violence against others and/or the overthrow of
authority. Advocates that a protected class or group of individuals
is inferior and/or makes such class/group the object of ridicule and/or
scorn, and may reasonably be thought to precipitate a violent
confrontation between the recipient and a member(s) of the target group.
Rejected incoming mailing from MIM. Mailing contains working that
appears to be referring to law enforcement as ‘pigs’ it appears to be
ridiculing and scornful. There is also a section in mailing labeled
solutions that calls prisoners to take actions against prison industries
and gives specific ideas/suggestions. Nothing to forward onto offender.”
A recent study assignment for the University of Maoist Thought was also
censored at Coyote Ridge. MIM(Prisons) has not yet been informed of this
censorship incident by the facility. The study group participant wrote
and told us it was censored for being a “copy of copyrighted material.”
The material in question was published in 1972 in the People’s Republic
of China. Not only did that government actively work against capitalist
concepts such as copyright, we believe that even by the United $tates’
own standards this book should not be subject to censorship.
Washington state
Clallam Bay CF rejected ULK 58 because: “Newsletter is being
rejected as it talks about September 9 events including offenders
commencing a hunger strike until equal treatment, retaliation and legal
rights issues are resolved.”
Coyote Ridge CC rejected ULK 58 for a different set of reasons:
“Contains plans for activity that violates state/federal law, the
Washington Administrative Code, Department policy and/or local
facet/rules. Contains correspondence, information, or other items
relating to another offender(s) without prior approval from the
Superintendent/designee: or attempts or conveys unauthorized offender to
offender correspondence.”
Canada
We received the following report from a Canadian prisoner who had sent
us some stamps to pay for a few issues of ULK to be mailed to
Canada.
“A few months ago, on July 18, I received notice from the V&C
department informing that five issues of ULK had arrived here for
me. The notice also explained that the issues had been seized because of
a Commissioner’s Directive (764.6) which states that ‘[t]he
institutional head may prohibit entry into the institution of material
that portrays excessive violence and aggression, or prison violence; or
if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that the material would
incite inmates to commit similar acts.’ I grieved the seizure, among
other things, citing the sections on page 2 of ULK, which
‘explicitly discourage[s prisoners] from engaging in any violence or
illegal acts,’ and citing too the UFPP statement of peace on page 3,
which speaks of the organizational aim to end needless conflicts and
violence within prisons.
”Well, I can now report that my
grievance was upheld and that all copies of ULK were released to
me, but not without the censorship of drawings deemed to portray or
promote the kind of violence described in the above-cited Commissioner’s
Directive. It’s a decision I can live with for now.”
Missouri
We got reports from two people that the blanket ban on ULK in
Missouri was removed and ULK 58 was received. If you’re in
Missouri and still not getting your ULK, be sure to let us
know.
Michigan - Richard A Handlon CF
ULK 58 was rejected because “Articles in Under Lock & Key
contains information about criminal activity that might entice criminal
activity within the prison facility - threat to security.”
Illinois - Stateville CC
ULK 58 was rejected because: “The publication appears to:
Advocate or encourage violence, hatred, or group disruption or it poses
an intolerable risk of violence or disruption. Be otherwise detrimental
to security, good order, rehabilitation, or discipline or it might
facilitate criminal activity or be detrimental to mental health.
Detrimental to safety and security of the facility. Disrupts order.
Promotes organization and leadership.”
The enclosed letter is submitted to you for follow-up to
“Insulin
Indifference Disables Prisoners”.(ULK 57, p. 6) The
publishing editor of that letter omitted the solution to that problem.
Does anyone have time to comment on if mine compares to the grievance
guides presently available? Or is my method in conflict with the advice
in other manuals? I want to know how I compare with other grievance
methods.
The problem in the article is a policy of no lunchtime
fingersticks/insulin injections. The prison serves lunch so late it is
outside the timeframe that a pre-breakfast shot of 70/30 insulin works
for some diabetics within the prison.
For diabetics having this problem, immediately following lunch they may
have symptoms of extremely elevated glucose, like hunger (even though
they have just ate lunch), blurry vision, dry mouth, thirst, pins and
needles (like tingling nerve pain), and frequent urination. In addition,
at next fingerstick before supper their glucose may be extremely
elevated.
“Extremely elevated” blood sugar is dangerous because it “can cause life
threatening changes in the body within a matter of hours. An extremely
high blood sugar level… And I am talking at least 300… can cause an
imbalance in the delicate acid-based structure in the tissues of the
body.”(1)
So if you take 70/30 insulin (and your prison doesn’t do lunchtime
fingersticks/insulin injections) and you have the above symptoms, and/or
if your suppertime glucose level is still over 300 several hours after
lunch, then you should first try a medical request. Then, if necessary,
a grievance explaining the problem. If filing a grievance (the formal
step), then include the illustration of how extremely elevated glucose
harms the body, located in the last paragraph of “Insulin Indifference
Disables Prisoners.” This way the warden, or other prison officials
signing off on the grievance, cannot claim they were unaware of the
damage that was occurring due to that they “are not medical
professionals.” (This is a popular excuse used by non-medical prison
officials to escape liability in prison medical care cases.)
Two solutions to the problem are: 1. For the prison to start serving
lunch earlier, or 2. For the prison to start providing lunchtime
fingerstick/insulin injection, at which time you should receive a small
dose of regular-type insulin, also called “mealtime insulin.”
Immediately following these two suggested solutions on your grievance,
you should write “To do neither would constitute deliberate
indifference.”
In your medical request or your grievance, you should also explain that
staff should periodically adjust your new lunchtime dose of regular
insulin to determine exactly what amount is required to lower the
residual glucose from lunch so it is at least somewhere between 200 -
300 by suppertime fingerstick. This will keep your glucose out of the
danger zone between lunch and supper.
MIM(Prisons) responds: The problem with timing insulin injections
with mealtimes is not lack of education or medical expertise. The
problem of indifference is built in to the capitalist, white supremacist
power structure. Imprisoned people, and oppressed nations in general,
are not thought to need or deserve to have access to proper medical
care. Prisoners’ right to their eyesight or to keep all their toes is of
absolutely no concern to the imperialist power structure. In fact, from
the imperialist system’s perspective it is probably better for prisoners
and oppressed nation people to continue suffering, and be kept busy
filing grievances. That way it’s even harder to fight back.
We’re glad this author wrote in with more details on what people could
do to resolve the individual problems they are having with
administration’s approach to diabetes management. If we’re talking about
real remedies, though, and about fixing a problem, we need to
acknowledge that capitalism and national oppression are the real cause
of extremely elevated glucose levels. We need to struggle on our
individual problems so we can be stronger for our revolutionary work.
Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture!
On 26 October 2017, U.$. President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a
public health emergency. The declaration should lead to more federal
funding for grants to combat opioid abuse.(1) As we explain below, this
epidemic disproportionately affects euro-Amerikans. Trump linked his
campaign to build a wall along the current Mexican border to the battle
against this epidemic, despite the fact that prescription painkillers
are at the root of it. This is consistent with the Amerikan government’s
solution for drug problems created by imperialism. For the crack
epidemic of the 1980s Amerika responded with mass incarceration of New
Afrikan men as the solution. As opioid addiction continues a steady
rise, Trump offers further militarization of the border.
Opioids have been used by humyns for thousands of years both medicinally
and recreationally, with many periods of epidemic addiction. Use began
with opium from poppies. Morphine was isolated in 1806. By the early
1900s heroin was promoted as a cure for morphine addiction in the United
$tates, before being made illegal in 1924. There was a lull in heroin
use during the 1980s, when cocaine and crack overshadowed it. Various
prescription pain killers began to come back into vogue in the 1990s
after the “Just Say No!” mentality was wearing off. Since then, use and
abuse has been on a steady rise, feeding a new surge in the use of
heroin as a cheaper alternative. This rise, in the economic centers of
both the United $tates and China, is directly linked to capitalism.
The Danger
While K2
is one dangerous substance plaguing U.$. prisons these days, partly
due to its undetectability, opioids are by far the biggest killer in the
United $tates, and we expect that is true in prisons as well. Drug
overdoses surpassed car accidents as the number one cause of accidental
deaths in the United $tates in 2007 and has continued a steady rise ever
since. The majority of these overdoses have been from opioids.(2)
While the increase in deaths from opioids has been strong across the
United $tates, rates are significantly higher among whites, and even
higher among First Nations. One reason that use rates are lower among
New Afrikans and Latin@s is that it has been shown that doctors are more
reluctant to prescribe opioids to them because they are viewed as more
likely to become addicted, and Amerikan doctors see them as having a
greater pain threshold.(3)
We did see some evidence of this trend in the results of
our
survey on the effects of drugs in U.$. prisons. The most popular
answer to our question of whether certain groups did more drugs in
prison than others was no, it affects everyone. But many clarified that
there was a strong racial divide where New Afrikans preferred weed and
K2, while whites and usually Latin@s went for heroin and/or meth. Some
of these respondents said that New Afrikans did less drugs.(4) A couple
said that New Afrikans used to do less drugs but now that’s changing as
addiction is spreading. In states where K2 has not hit yet (CA, GA, CO)
it was common to hear that whites and “hispanics” (or in California,
“southern” Mexicans) did more drugs. The pattern of New Afrikans
preferring weed and K2 seemed common across the country, and could have
implications for strategies combating drug use among New Afrikans
compared to other groups. In particular, stressing that K2 is completely
different and more dangerous than weed could be part of a harm reduction
strategy focused on New Afrikans.
If prison staff were doing their jobs, then we would expect rates of
both overdoses and use in general to be lower in prisons. But we know,
and our survey confirmed, that this is not the case (78% of respondents
mentioned staff being responsible for bringing in at least some of the
drugs in their prison). In hindsight, it may have been useful to ask our
readers what percentage of prisoners are users and addicts. Some of the
estimates that were offered of the numbers using drugs in general were
20-30%, 90%, 75%, and many saying it had its grips on the whole
population.
Deaths from opioids in the general U.$. population in 2015 was 10.5 per
100,000, double the rate in 2005.(5) This is higher than the rates in
many state prison systems for overdoses from any drug,
including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania that
all reported average rates of 1 per 100,000 from 2001-2012. California
was closer at 8 per 100,000 and Maryland exceeded the general population
at 17 deaths from overdoses per 100,000 prisoners.(6) At the same time,
prison staff have been known to
cover
up deaths from overdoses, so those 1 per 100,000 rates may be
falsified.
In our survey of ULK readers, we learned that Suboxone, a drug
used to treat opioid addiction, is quite popular in prisons
(particularly in the northeast/midwestern states). Survey respondents
mentioned it as often as weed as one of the most popular drugs, and more
than heroin. Suboxone is actually used to treat heroin addiction. And
while it is not supposed to be active like other opioids, it can lead to
a high and be addictive. It is relatively safe, and will not generally
lead to overdose until you combine it with other substances, which can
lead to death.
Prescription drugs are not as common as other drugs in most prisons,
according to our survey. Though in some cases they are available. We
received a few responses from prisons where prescription drugs
prescribed by the medical staff seemed to be the only thing going on the
black market. Clearly there is variability by facility.
Two Paths to Recovery
The increases in opioid abuse in the United $tates has been
staggering, and they cause a disproportionate amount of the deaths from
drug overdoses. About 10% of opioid addicts worldwide are in the United
$tates, despite only being less than 5% of the world’s population.(7) At
the same time, only about 1% of people in the United $tates are abusing
opioids.(8) This is not the worst episode in U.$. history, and certainly
not in world history.
Around 1914 there were 200,000 heroin addicts in the United $tates, or
2% of the population. In contrast, some numbers for opium addicts in
China prior to liberation put the addiction rate as high as 20% of the
population around 1900, and 10% by the 1930s. That’s not to dismiss the
seriousness of the problem in the United $tates, but to highlight the
power of proletarian dictatorship, which eliminated drug addiction about
3 years after liberation.
Richard Fortmann did a direct comparison of the United $tates in 1952
(which had 60,000 opioid addicts) and revolutionary China (which started
with millions in 1949).(9) Despite being the richest country in the
world, unscathed by the war, with an unparalleled health-care system,
addicts in the United $tates increased over the following two decades.
Whereas China, a horribly poor country coming out of decades of civil
war, with 100s of years of opium abuse plaguing its people, had
eliminated the problem by 1953.(9) Fortmann pointed to the politics
behind the Chinese success:
“If the average drug addiction expert in the United States were shown a
description of the treatment modalities used by the Chinese after 1949
in their anti-opium campaign, his/her probable response would be to say
that we are already doing these things in the United States, plus much
more. And s/he would be right.”(9)
About one third of addicts went cold turkey after the revolution, with
the more standard detox treatment taking 12 days to complete. How could
they be so successful so fast? What the above comparison is missing is
what happened in China in the greater social context. The Chinese were a
people in the process of liberating themselves, and becoming a new,
socialist people. The struggle to give up opium was just one aspect of a
nationwide movement to destroy remnants of the oppressive past.
Meanwhile the people were being called on and challenged in all sorts of
new ways to engage in building the new society. There was so much that
was more stimulating than opium to be doing with their time. Wimmin, who
took up opium addiction in large numbers after being forced into
prostitution in opium dens, were quickly gaining opportunities to engage
at all levels of society. The poor, isolated peasants were now organized
in collectives, working together to solve all kinds of problems related
to food production, biology and social organization. The successful
struggle against drug addiction in China was merely one impressive side
effect of the revolutionizing of the whole society.
In contrast, in the capitalist countries, despair lurks behind every
corner as someone struggles to stay clean. The approach has ranged from
criminalization to medicalization of drug addiction as a disease. “Once
an addict, always an addict”, as they say. Always an individualist
approach, ignoring the most important, social causes of the problem.
That drug addiction is primarily a social disease was proven by the
practice of the Chinese in the early 1950s, but Western “science”
largely does not acknowledge the unquestionable results from that
massive experiment.
It is also worth pointing out the correlation between drug abuse and
addiction, and capitalist economics specifically. Whether it was
colonial powers forcing opium on the Chinese masses who had nothing, in
order to enslave them to their economic will, or it is modern Amerikan
society indulging its alienation in the over-production of prescription
pills from big pharmaceutical companies marketing medicine for a profit.
China Today
And now, opioid addiction is on the rise again in capitalist China after
decades. A steady rise in drug-related arrests in China since 1990 are
one indicator of the growing problem.(10) As more profits flowed into
the country, so have more drugs, especially since the 1990s. We recently
published a
review
of Is China an Imperialist Country?, where we lamented the loses
suffered by the Chinese people since the counter-revolution in 1976. It
goes to show that when you imitate the imperialists, and put advancing
the productive forces and profits over serving the people, you invite in
all the social ills of imperialism.
In China drug addiction has now become something that people fear.
Like it did with its economy, China has followed in the imperialists’
footsteps in how it handles drug addiction. Chinese policy has begun
treating addicts as patients that need to be cured to protect society.
Rather than seeing those who give up drugs as having defeated the
oppressor’s ways, they are monitored by the state, lose social
credibility, and have a hard time getting a job.(11) Under socialism,
everyone had a job and no one needed recreational drugs to maintain
themselves mentally. The path to combating drug addiction and abuse is
well-established. Attempts under imperialism that don’t involve
liberatory politics of the oppressed have little to no effect.
For this issue of Under Lock & Key we took on the task of
investigating the impacts of drugs and the drug trade on the prison
movement. We ran a
survey
in the Jan/Feb 2017 and March/April 2017 issues of Under Lock &
Key. We received 62 completed surveys from our readers in U.$.
prisons. We have incorporated the more interesting results in a series
of articles in this issue. This article looks at the central question of
the role of the drug trade inside and outside prisons and how to
effectively organize among the lumpen in that context. In other articles
we look more closely at the recent
plague of K2 in U.$. prisons, and the latest
rise
in opioid addiction and what socialism and capitalism have to offer
us as solutions.
Bourgeois society blames the individual
Bourgeois society takes an individualistic view of the world. When it
comes to drugs, the focus is on the individual: we talk about how they
failed and succumbed to drugs because of their weakness or mistakes as
an individual. While individuals must ultimately take responsibility for
their actions, it is only by understanding society at a group level,
using dialectical materialism to study the political economy of our
world, that we can address problems on a scale that will make a real
impact. Even at the individual level, it’s more effective to help people
make connections to the root causes of their problems (not supposed
persynality flaws) and empower them to fight those causes if we want
lasting change.
Much of our criminal injustice system is built on punishment and shaming
of those who have been convicted. A proletarian approach to justice uses
self-criticism to take accountability for one’s actions, while studying
political economy to understand why that path was even an option in the
first place, and an attractive one at that.
In the essay “Capitalism Plus Dope Equals Genocide”, Cetewayo, a Black
Panther leader, provides a good example of overcoming the conditions one
is born into. Ey was addicted to heroin from age 13 to 18, before
joining the Black Panther Party. Eir example stresses the importance of
providing alternative outlets for oppressed nation youth. In some cases
the mere existence of that alternative can change lives.
Drugs and the Principal Contradiction in Prison
MIM(Prisons) and leaders in the Countrywide Council of United Struggle
from Within (Double C) have had many conversations about what the
principal contradiction is within the prison population. MIM(Prisons)
has put forth that the parasitic/individualistic versus
self-sufficient/collective material interests of the lumpen class is the
principal contradiction within the prison movement in the United $tates
today. The drug problem in prisons relates directly to this
contradiction. Those pursuing drugs and/or dealing are focused on their
persynal interests, at the expense of others. The drug trade is
inherently parasitic as it requires an addicted population to be
profitable, and users are escaping the world for an individual high,
rather than working to make the world better for themselves and others.
A Double C comrade from Arkansas explains this contradiction:
“Things have been slow motion here due to lockdown. Reason being too
much violence across the prison. Some of this violence is due to the
underground economy. Being submerged in a culture of consumerism which
is not only an obstacle to our emancipation (mentally and physically)
this self-destructive method of oppression is a big problem consuming
the population. I’ve been in prisons where the market is not packed or
heavily packed with drugz. It is in those yards that unity and
productive lines are greatly practiced. The minute drugz become the
leading item of consumption, shit breaks down, individualism sets in and
all of the fucked up tendencies follow suit.
“I say 75% of the population in this yard is a consumer. About 5%
have no self control, it’s usually this percentage that ends up a ‘debt’
victim (since you owe $ you owe a clean up). Aggressor or not,
consumerism is a plague that victimizes everyone one way or another.
This consumerism only aids the pigz, rats, infiltrators, and oppressors
in continuing with a banking concept of ‘education/rehabilitation’ and
therefore domesticating the population.
“I mean the consequences and outcomes are not hidden, it is a constant
display of what it is when you can’t pay the IRS, so it is not as if
people don’t know. I’ve seen people slow down or stopped some old habits
after experiencing/witnessing these beheadings. Shit, I just hit the
yard because pigz were all inside the block searching and homeboy’s
puddles of blood were still on the yard.”
Drugs and Violence
It is no secret that drugs and violence often go hand-in-hand. As the
above comrade alludes to, this is often related to debts. But one of the
things we learned from our recent survey of ULK readers is that
in most prisons there is an inherent threat of violence towards people
who might take up effective organizing against drugs.
A California comrade wrote,
“No one in prison is going to put their safety and security on the line
over drugs. You have to understand that life has little value in prison.
If you do anything to jeopardize an individual’s ability to earn a
living, it will cost you your life.”
Another California comrade was more explicit,
“If you say anything about the drugs, cell phones, extortions, etc.,
whether if you’re in the general population, or now, worse yet in 2017,
SNY/Level IV, the correctional officers inform the key gang members that
you’re running your mouth. You either get hit immediately, or at the
next prison. Although my safety is now at stake, by prisoners, it’s
being orchestrated by corrections higher-ups concocting the story.”
This was in response to our survey question “Have you seen effective
efforts by prisoners to organize against drug use and its effects? If
so, please describe them.” Not only were the responses largely adamant
“no”s, the vast majority said it would be dangerous to do so. This was
despite the fact that we did not ask whether it would be dangerous to do
so. Therefore, we assume that more than 73% might say so if asked.
Some readers questioned what to do about staff involvement bringing
drugs into the prisons. One writer from Pennsylvania said:
“It’s hardly ever dry in Fayette and this institution is a big problem
why. A lot of the staff bring it in. Then when someone goes in debt or
does something they wouldn’t normally do, they don’t want to help you,
if you ask for help. There’s no unity anymore. Nobody fights or stands
up for nothing. Everybody rather fight each other than the pigs. It
would take a lot to make a change in the drug situation. Is it wrong to
put the pigs out there for what they’re doing? Would I be considered a
snitch? I know there would be retaliation on me, maybe even a ass
whoopin. I’m curious on your input on this.”
If we look at the involvement of staff in bringing drugs into prisons,
and the violence associated with the drug trade, we have to call
bullshit when these very same institutions censor Under Lock &
Key on the claim that it might incite violence. The system is
complicit, and many staff actively participate, in the plague of drugs
that is destroying the minds and bodies of the oppressed nation men and
wimmin, while promoting individualistic money-seeking behavior that
leads to brutal violence between the oppressed themselves.
Organizing in Prisons
While the reports responding to that question were mostly negative,
and the situation seems dire, we do want to report on the positive
things we heard. We heard about successful efforts by New Afrikans
getting out of the SHU in California, some Muslim communities and the
Nation of Gods and Earths. Some have been at this for
over
a decade. All of these programs seemed to be of limited scope, but
it is good to know there are organizations providing an alternative.
In Arkansas, a comrade reports,
“For the mass majority of drug users and prisoners I have not seen any
positive efforts to stop drug use and its effects. But for my
affiliation, the ALKN, we have put the product of K2/deuce in law with
heroin and its byproducts where no member should be in use of or make
attempts to sell for profit or gain. If you do you will receive the
consequences of the body who governs this affiliation and organization
for lack of discipline and obedience to pollute your self/body and those
around you who are the future and leaders of tomorrow’s nations.”
While practice varies among the many individuals at different stages in
the organization, the Latin Kings/ALKQN has historically opposed the use
of hard drugs amongst its members. Many in New York in the 1990s
attributed their recovery from drug addiction to their participation in
the organization.(1)
There are some good examples of lumpen organizations engaging in what we
might call policies of harm reduction. One comrade mentioned the 16 Laws
and Policies of Chairman Larry Hoover as an example of effective
organizing against drugs in eir prison. Lumpen leaders like Jeff Fort
and Larry Hoover are where we see a national bourgeoisie with
independent power in the internal semi-colonies of the United $tates.
The proletarian organizations of the oppressed nations should work to
unite with such forces before the imperialists corrupt them or force
them into submission. In fact, the Black Panthers did just that, but
failed to build long-term unity with the Black P. Stone Rangers largely
due to state interference and repression.
On the other hand, in some states comrades reported that lumpen
organizations are among the biggest benefactors from the drug trade.
Some of the same names that are mentioned doing positive work are
mentioned as being the problem elsewhere. This is partly explained by
the largely unaffiliated franchise system that some of these names
operate under. But it is also a demonstration of the principal
contradiction mentioned above, which is present in the First World
lumpen outside of prisons, too. There is a strong
individualist/parasitic tendency combating with the reality that
self-sufficiency and collective action best serve the oppressed nations.
Too often these organizations are doing significant harm to individuals
and the broader movement against the criminal injustice system, and can
not be part of any progressive united front until they pull out of these
anti-people activities.
The more economically entrenched an organization is in the drug trade,
the more they are siding with the imperialists and against the people.
But on the whole, the First World lumpen, particularly oppressed nation
youth, have the self-interest and therefore the potential to side with
their people and with the proletariat of the world.
As one Texas comrade commented:
“I must say that the survey opened a door on the issue about drugs
within prison. After doing the survey I brought this up with a couple of
people to see if we could organize a program to help people with a drug
habit. I’m an ex-drug dealer with a life sentence. I can admit I was
caught up with the corruption of the U.S. chasing the almighty dollar,
not caring about anyone not even family. Coming to prison made me open
my eyes. With the help of MIM and Under Lock & Key I’ve been
learning the principles of the United Front and put them in my everyday
speech and walk within this prison. The enemy understands that the pen
is a powerful tool. Comrades don’t trip on me like other organizations
done when I let them know I’m a black Muslim who studied a lot of Mao
Zedong.
Building Independent Institutions of the Oppressed
At least one respondent mentioned “prisoners giving up sources” (to the
pigs to shut down people who are dealing) in response to the question
about effective anti-drug organizing. From the responses shown below, it
is clear that the state is not interested in effective anti-drug
programming in prisons. This is an example of why we need independent
institutions of the oppressed. We cannot expect the existing power
structure to meet the health needs of the oppressed nation people
suffering from an epidemic of drug abuse in U.$. prisons.
The Black Panthers faced similar conditions in the 1960s in the
Black ghettos of the United $tates. As they wrote in Capitalism Plus
Dope Equals Genocide,
“It is also the practice of pig-police, especially narcotics agents, to
seize a quantity of drugs from one dealer, arrest him, but only turn in
a portion of the confiscated drugs for evidence. The rest is given to
another dealer who sells it and gives a percentage of the profits to the
narcotics agents. The pig-police also utilize informers who are dealers.
In return for information, they receive immunity from arrest. The police
cannot solve the problem, for they are a part of the problem.”
Our survey showed significant abuse of Suboxone, a drug used to treat
opioid addiction. In the 1970s Methadone clinics, backed by the
Rockefeller Program, became big in New York. The state even linked
welfare benefits to these services. Yet, Mutulu Shakur says, “In New
York City, 60 percent of the illegal drugs on the street during the
early ’70s was methadone. So we could not blame drug addiction at that
time on Turkey or Afghanistan or the rest of that triangle.”(2)
Revolutionaries began to see this drug that was being used as treatment
as breaking up the revolutionary movement and the community. Mutulu
Shakur and others in the Lincoln Detox Center used acupuncture as a
treatment for drug addiction. Lincoln Detox is an example of an
independent institution developed by communists to combat drug addiction
in the United $tates.
“[O]n November 10, 1970, a group of the Young Lords, a South Bronx
anti-drug coalition, and members of the Health Revolutionary Unity
Movement (a mass organization of health workers) with the support of the
Lincoln Collective took over the Nurses’ Residence building of Lincoln
Hospital and established a drug treatment program called The People’s
Drug Program, which became known as Lincoln Detox Center.”(3) Lincoln
Detox was a program that was subsequently run by the Young Lords Party,
Black Panthers that had survived the Panther 21 raid, the Republic of
New Afrika, and White Lightning, a radical organization of white former
drug addicts, until 1979 when a police raid forced the communists out of
the hospital, removing the political content of the program.(4)
Young Lord Vicente “Panama” Alba was there from day one, and tells eir
story of breaking free of addiction cold turkey to take up the call of
the revolution. After sitting on the stoop watching NYPD officers
selling heroin in eir neighborhood, and a few days after attending a
Young Lords demonstration, Panama said, “Because of the way I felt that
day, I told myself I couldn’t continue to be a drug user. I couldn’t be
a heroin addict and a revolutionary, and I wanted to be a revolutionary.
I made a decision to kick a dope habit.”(3) This experience echoes that
of millions of
addicted
Chinese who went cold turkey to take up building socialism in their
country after 1949.
Mutulu Shakur describes how the Lincoln Detox Center took a political
approach similar to the Chinese in combatting addiction, “This became a
center for revolutionary, political change in the methodology and
treatment modality of drug addiction because the method was not only
medical but it was also political.” Shakur was one of the clinic’s
members who visited socialist China in the 1970s to learn acupuncture
techniques for treating addiction. He goes on to describe the program:
“So the Lincoln Detox became not only recognized by the community as a
political formation but its work in developing and saving men and women
of the third world inside of the oppressed communities, resuscitating
these brothers and sisters and putting them into some form of healing
process within the community we became a threat to the city of New York
and consequently with the development of the barefoot doctor acupuncture
cadre, we began to move around the country and educate various other
communities instead of schools and orientations around acupuncture drug
withdrawal and the strategy of methadone and the teaching the brothers
and sisters the fundamentals of acupuncture to serious acupuncture, how
it was used in the revolutionary context in China and in Vietnam and how
we were able to use it in the South Bronx and our success.”(2)
Dealing with the Dealers
Though the Black Panthers had organized the workers at Lincoln Hospital
leading up to the takeover, by that time the New York chapter was
already in decline due to repression and legal battles. While many BPP
branches had to engage with drug cartels, the New York chapter stood out
in their launching of heavily-armed raids on local dealers and dumping
all of their heroin into the gutters. The New York Panthers faced unique
circumstances in a city that contained half of the heroin addicts in the
country, which was being supplied by la Cosa Nostra with help from the
CIA. While there was mass support for the actions of the Panthers at
first, state repression pushed the New York Panthers down an ultra-left
path. The Panther 21 trial was a huge setback to their mass organizing,
with 21 prominent Panthers being jailed and tried on trumped up
terrorism charges. After they were all exonerated, the New York
Panthers, siding ideologically with Eldridge Cleaver who was pushing an
ultra-left line from exile in Algeria, made the transition to the
underground. If they were going to be accused of bombings and shootings
anyway, then they might as well actually do some, right?
These were the conditions under which the Black Liberation Army was
formed. Though there was overlap between the BLA and those who led
community projects like Lincoln Detox, the path of the underground
guerrillas generally meant giving up the mass organizing in the
community. Instead, raiding local drug dealers became a staple of theirs
as a means of obtaining money. Money that essentially belonged to the
NYPD, which was enabling those dealers and benefiting them financially.
The former-Panthers-turned-BLA continued to destroy the dope they found,
and punished the dealers they raided.
Again, we are confronted with this dual nature of the lumpen class. It
would certainly be ultra-left to view all drug dealers as enemies to be
attacked. It is also certainly clear that the CIA/Mafia/NYPD heroin
trade in New York was an enemy that needed to be addressed. But how does
the revolutionary movement interact with the criminal-minded LOs today?
In its revolutionary transformation, China also had to deal with
powerful criminal organizations. The Green Gang, which united the
Shanghai Triads, significantly funded the Guomindang’s rise to power,
primarily through profits from opium sales. In the late 1940s they
opened up negotiations with the Communist Party as the fate of China was
becoming obvious. However, no agreement was reached, and the criminal
organizations were quickly eliminated in mainland China after 1949. They
took refuge in capitalist outposts like Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and
Chinatowns elsewhere in Asia and Europe. While heroin has returned to
China, the gangs have not yet.(5)
While the contradiction between the communists and the drug gangs did
come to a head, it was after defeating Japanese imperialism and after
defeating the reactionary Guomindang government. And even then, most
drug dealers were reformed and joined the building of a socialist
society.
In eir article, Pilli clearly explains why slangin’
can’t be revolutionary. And a comrade from West Virginia gives an
example where the shot-callers
are explicitly working against the interest of the prison movement
to further their economic goals. We must address the question of how the
prison movement should engage with those who are slangin’. The answer to
that is beyond the scope of our drug survey, and needs to be found in
practice by the revolutionary cells within prisons taking up this
organizing work.
Building Socialism to Serve the People
Many respondents to our survey sounded almost hopeless when it came to
imagining a prison system without rampant drug addiction. But this
hopelessness is not completely unfounded. As “Capitalism Plus Dope
Equals Genocide”, reads:
“The government is totally incapable of addressing itself to the true
causes of drug addiction, for to do so would necessitate effecting a
radical transformation of this society. The social consciousness of this
society, the values, mores and traditions would have to be altered. And
this would be impossible without totally changing the way in which the
means of producing social wealth is owned and distributed. Only a
revolution can eliminate the plague.”
To back up what the Panthers were saying here, we can look at
socialist
China and how they eliminated opium addiction in a few years, while
heroin spread in the capitalist United $tates. The Chinese proved
that this is a social issue and not primarily a biological/medical one.
The communist approach differed greatly from the Guomindang in that
addicts were not blamed or punished for their addiction. They were
considered victims of foreign governments and other enemies of the
people. Even many former dealers were reformed.(6) Although we don’t
have the state power now to implement broad policies like the Chinese
Communist Party, we can help drug users focus on understanding the cause
and consequences of their use in a social context. We need people to see
how dope is harming not only themselves, but more generally their
people, both inside and outside of prison. People start doing drugs
because of problems in their lives that come from problems in capitalist
society. Being in prison sucks, and dope helps people escape, even if
it’s fleeting. But this escape is counter productive. As so many writers
in this issue of ULK have explained, it just serves the interests
of the criminal injustice system. We can help people overcome addictions
by giving them something else to focus on: the fight against the system
that wants to keep them passive and addicted.
I got a message to all the tweakers, tecatos, potheads and boozers. Wake
Up! Can’t you see you’re doing exactly what the oppressors wants you to
do? So why are you giving them the satisfaction? With all the cameras
rolling 24-7, you think they don’t know what you’re doing? Newsflash:
You ain’t that slick, buddy.
“All I had to do is drink a lot of water to flush out my system.” I
overheard one drug addict say when he came back from medical, for a drug
test. “My piss came back clean even though I just used in the morning.”
It’s a miracle! We must run and tell the others! Now it’s safe to puff
puff, cough cough, & slam slam! As long as you hydrate and drink
drink (a lotta water), you could pass pass (the ‘drug test’), no
problem. Your passing grade might be a D- but at least you didn’t fail,
right? Wrong!
Let’s face it, water or no water, your urine is dirty. I know it, you
know it, and the porkchop-patrol most definitely knows it. They just
don’t care. Besides, lucky for you, there’s never enough room in the
“hole.” Five segregation singleman cells for a facility that houses 650
prisoners equals “no vacancy”.
It’s like you have to schedule an appointment, make it onto a guest
list, then wait for about a month, in order to make it into the hole.
But if the COs really did their job this whole place would be empty.
Literally, there would only be about 20 people left in each dorm. That’s
how bad this epidemic is. But fear not my drug-addicted friend, the pigs
have bigger fish to fry. Or at least that’s what they want us to think.
Extremely violent prisoners get top priority over minor drug offenders.
But if you’ve been locked up as long as I have, then you’d know that
extreme acts of violence are mostly over a minor drug debt. Common sense
tells me, “get rid of the drugs and the violence shall cease.” I have a
hunch that the “system” could stop the drug flow at any time. But,
looking at it through their eyes, why ruin a good thing?
Figuratively speaking, drugs are the oil that keep the oppression
machine running. Sobriety is the monkey-wrench that’ll break this bitch
down. So put the word out, we need more wrenches. Staying clean is the
worst thing we could do to these puercos.
Think about it for a second. Imagine if we obliterate the drug trade in
prison. Most of these facilities would go out of business. Half the
staff would start filling out applications at Mickey D’z, and Walmart,
at the end of their shifts. But instead, most of us wanna keep on
getting shit-faced; letting the enemy win with its foot on our necks.
Wake up!
The enemy loves getting us high. Because it leads to a lot of drama, and
drama is the safety blanket that keeps the oppressors warm at night. It
gives them job security and a fat bank account. Meanwhile, all the users
and dealers turn against each other while the pigs kick back and laugh.
Don’t worry, though. They’re gonna let you keep using and selling on one
condition; as long as y’all keep fighting and snitching, stabbing and
pinching.
Don’t get my words twisted. I’m not implying that you could keep on
using, and abusing, and not get caught. Because every now and then, like
once in a blue moon, they make an example out of somebody. But from what
I’ve seen, their victim is usually the most humble junkie on the block.
Yeah, this dude gets high but he’s cool. He pays his debts, and doesn’t
bother nobody. But for some reason, the puercos got it in for him. He
already got a few “dirties,” and has an appointment at the “hole.”
“But what about that trouble-making tweaker?” There’s 1 in every block.
“How come he doesn’t ever get called for a random drug test, and go
away?” I ask myself.
Lord knows this trouble-making tweaker is not low key. He’s a dead beat
and proud of it. His drug debts are stacking up, and on top of that,
he’s starting fights in the open; all in front of the cameras. And
still, the hooras act like they don’t see him. They treat him like a
model inmate.
It’s like the pigs are watching in the wings, waiting for the inevitable
to happen. Instead of nipping the problem in the bud, they wait for the
problem to get smashed out, stabbed, or removed from the yard. Only then
they jump into action.
But don’t think they’re gonna swoop in like some superheroes. No. They
take their sweet time, sometimes just stand there looking; waiting for
the “victim” to get nicely bruised up. Only then, they bust out the
cuffs and add charges.
“Come on, you guys are not even doing nothing!” I once heard a pig say
to a boo bop squad while they beat a tweaker. “You gotta hit ’em harder
if you want me to stop it!” Then he laughed, I laughed, and half the
yard laughed. But it wasn’t funny. And his sick sense of humor cost him
his job, cause I didn’t see him after that.
But that’s what he gets for letting things get out of hand. And all that
- the beating and the firing - could’ve been avoided if his co-workers
would’ve done their job properly in the first place. But why ruin a good
thing?
Wake up amigos! It’s time to stop entertaining these hooras. It’s time
to put down the needles, and the pookies, and get our minds back.
Whether in prison or out in society, drugs constitute a major problem.
In particular, for our Latino and Black communities, drugs represent a
deceiving allure for youth. Power, status, authority, advancement, the
all-mighty dollar - the “American Dream.” In reality, drugs are just
another trap to maintain our communities in an oppressed state unable to
progress.
For us, drugs generally lead to a ruined life, prison, or death. There
aren’t many other avenues available. For those who’ve fallen into the
drug illusion and find themselves in prison, the question is how can we
help them escape drug’s allure and stop the oppression of our nations?
Obviously, the system (controlled by capitalists and their contributors)
has no inclination to help oppressed nations. Having to chase the
American Dream through illicit methods or escaping our harrowing reality
by using drugs is far more conducive to continuing a capitalistic state
than providing viable means of community improvement. So we have to
first recognize that no help will come from the top. Where does that
leave us?
We have first-hand knowledge of drugs and an in-depth comprehension of
our communities and cultures. What must happen is that those on the
outside reach into the prisons and pull our people out from beneath the
crushing weight of drugs. Building grassroots organizations focused on
supporting those in the gulags overcome addiction. Not only addiction to
using but to selling drugs as well. Connecting prisoners with outside
sources for support, employment (once released), and most important of
all, guidance. Many stuck in the gulags feel capitalism’s oppression but
have no idea how to combat it. Feeling hopeless to progress legally,
many are seduced by drugs. Any guidance should be aimed at building
consciousness, alternative avenues, and awakening a revolutionary spirit
to pull people out from under the gulags.
The most important aspect of such grassroots organizations is that
they’re from among our own barrios. Their members live or lived where
the struggle is deepest. They’re connected in a way no outsider
organization can ever be. All of this is good in theory, but does it
actually work?
The BPP (Black Panther Party) gave us a perfect example when they
educated their barrios while feeding their gente. From outside we must
educate those inside, feeding them and providing alternative means of
overcoming oppression. It must become clear that chasing the American
Dream – a piece of the capitalist pie – isn’t to our benefit. Our people
are oppressed and gaining part of the pie does nothing to bring us
closer to equality.
When capitalism is finally supplanted, revolutionary organizations
with this kind of focus will provide the infrastructure for our new
society. For the capitalists, you selling drugs is preferable to you
fighting the system’s oppression. You consuming drugs is more desired
because you’re escaping reality. Whether you sell or do drugs, you
remove yourself from the necessary revolution and only contribute to the
oppression visited upon our communities. And, if drugs don’t ruin your
life or kill you, there’s another place for you. Capitalists call it the
Department of Corrections, we call it the Dungeons.